Various efforts have been made to provide low cost, light-weight sleeving for protection of cables, wires and tubular members against the effects of temperature, to isolate sources of heat or to provide protection of such components against abrasion or snagging by moving machinery parts.
For many purposes, corrugated tubes, particularly those having a longitudinally slit side wall or knitted, woven or braided sleeving, have proven to be highly satisfactory means for accomplishing this goal. These products are flexible and can be engineered to provide required properties such as abrasion resistance or thermal protection. However, they tend to be relatively expensive to make. A need has thus persisted for a cost-effective alternative having high durability for use, for example, in modern, high-performance automotive vehicles.